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@Pioneer1 No. I was too busy with being a new mother. I've never been a serious TV addict, so there are probably more popular shows that I did not see especially during the 90s. BTW, I've been absent from this community for a little while because my computer had a virus and also some significant changes have occurred. So, I am super busy but hope to eventually pop in more and more to see the topics!

For once in my life, I can offer the news that a city in NC has put forth a REPARATIONS package for the black residents of Asheville. It is hoped that what happens in Asheville will become a model for the rest of the nation. The city council voted unanimously to issue an apology for slavery and promised to pour money into investments into the black neighborhoods. No money will be paid out to individuals, but a newly formed Commission was formed so that the money could be allocated accordingly. Two other cites, Providence, Rhode Island, and Richmond VA have followed the Asheville model while last year, Evansville, Illinois took it one step further by becoming the first city to approve direct payouts to individual blacks.

Imagine if I wrote an article about the Yellow Vest protestors in France and I quoted a professor from Kenya in the write up. Imagine if I was an anchor of a newscast and I had a segment about the conflict in Catalonia only to welcome an expert from Cameroon to present his views on that topic. Imagine if I hosted a TV show that covered the history of Irish people and I invited an analyst from Zimbabwe to offer insights on Ireland. I know there are some who chuckled at the thought of these things; a reaction wrought by the caste system of race that has conditioned us to place value on complexion above the complexity of people’s ideas. However, mainstream media outlets have no problem giving platforms to professors, experts and analysts from Europe and America to examine current events and news related to Africa as they willfully disregard all but a few token voices from the countries they dissect. These are the vestiges of colonialism that lives on through patronization. In theory, there should be no problem with the imagined scenarios I presented above; knowledge is not constrained by borders neither is understanding of a country the sole domain of those who live there. The problem is if I invite only non-native professional to assess the news and views of nations to the exclusion of those who reside there. The imagery is jarring; while Ethiopians, Kenyans, Nigerians and other nations throughout Africa are reduced to background props, pundits with lesser melamine are given spotlights to talk for us—this is nothing less than a vicious form of reductivism. Read full article at: https://ghionjournal.com/analyze-this-agenda-setting-or-intellectual-laziness/

Hey Sis, glad to hear from you. I hope your computer was the ONLY one that had a virus!